This is what you live for, there is nothing better. This is my religion. The Eagles are my life. Those freshly minted words were uttered by West Coast Eagles supporter, Adam Logan, as he soaked up the thrill of the Eagles defeating Collingwood in one of the all-time great Australian Football League Grand Finals yesterday. […]
In the midst of all the frustration or anger that the current religious freedom debates in Australia engender, spare a thought for Chinese Christians. In a revealing article in The Guardian today China’s myriad unofficial churches are coming under direction pressure, indeed persecution, from Beijing. And all at a time when The Roman Catholic Church is […]
2018 feels like the eye of the storm in Australia. The oft-rampant fury of 2017’s ethical debates around sexuality have dissipated somewhat, and we’re in a holding pattern waiting to see what happens. 12 months ago (has the year really gone that quickly?) we were in the middle of the plebiscite on same sex marriage […]
It’s not too late for those organising the Franklin Graham tour of Australia next year to get on the blower and tell the man not to come. For the problem is not that too few people will turn up, but too many. And quite possibly for all the wrong reasons. We’re being told it’s about […]
While we’re all wringing our hands over the demographic decline in many denominations, spare a thought for Humanism Australia. When it comes to decline, the humanists are outstripping the churches, only unfortunately for them, quite literally, they haven’t a prayer. A friend posted this excerpt of a report from late last year on their website: …membership […]
Just when you seem to have sorted it out, that pesky secular frame seems to dip and trough all over the place. According to a report in The Conversation online news journal, Gen Z – today’s teen – has a less hostile, more ambivalent approach to religion than perhaps the Dawkins apostles would have wished […]
Twenty five years ago today, one day after my 26th birthday, Jill and I went out on our first date. A quarter of a century. My life has been a game – or a dance – of two halves, so to speak. Here’s a picture of Jill on about date number five, a month or […]
When, in my early twenties I went hiking in Northern Ireland’s Mourne Mountains; pea-green valleys, rock-strewn peaks, swirls of snow, and ancient stone walls, it was easy to imagine a deep vert dragon rising suddenly through the mists in front of me. And easier still to long for one to do so. Dan Conway’s latest […]
What else do you have on in the week? That is the #1 question newcomers ask when wondering if they should stop off at your church. Sometimes they’re asking: How can I be involved? Often they’re asking: How can I belong? Community groups, Bible study groups, growth groups, small groups, youth groups, men’s groups, women’s groups […]
There have been plenty of articles about why Millennials – those twenty somethings – are not coming to church. Plenty of time and attention towards what would bring them back. Well, in our church at the moment plenty of Millennials ARE coming. It’s been noted by the older crowd that they’re starting to get outnumbered […]
